The present invention generally relates to firearms, and more particularly to safety mechanisms for a firearm.
Various safety mechanisms have been used that function to selectively disable the fire control system for firearms. In long guns such as rifles and shotguns that employ a commonly used stock bolt for attaching the buttstock to the receiver, the safety operating switch or button must generally be mounted integrally in the receiver forward of the stock bolt (such as on the top) to avoid interference between the bolt and safety. This forward positioning of the safety button is not always the most convenient and user friendly location. In addition, the practice of separating the parts that comprise the safety assembly from those that comprise the fire control group (e.g. trigger, hammer, sear, etc.) sometimes followed unfortunately increases the tolerance stack-up (“tolerance stack”) because these parts of each system must functionally interact. Tolerance stack is the cumulative sum or accumulation of individual component manufacturing and/or drawings tolerances in part assemblies having multiple interacting components. This can result in failure of parts to assemble properly, interference between various moving parts resulting in unsmooth operation or binding, and sometimes complete failure of mechanisms to function altogether. Accordingly, this may translate into increased manufacturing costs for re-machining and reliability issues.
An improved safety mechanism for a firearm is desired.